A group of publishers and authors has filed a class action lawsuit against Google, accusing the tech giant of using their copyrighted works to train its AI platform, Gemini. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, giving a different judge the opportunity to weigh in on the matter.
Allegations of copyright information removal
According to the complaint, Google intentionally removed or altered copyright information on these works to "conceal... that its Gemini Models were trained on stolen materials." Plaintiffs include Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier, author Scott Turow, and S.C.R.I.B.E. The lawsuit claims Google used copies of books from Google Books and the Google Play Store, even though it never received permission to do so.
Broader context of AI training lawsuits
This dispute is part of a wider wave of legal actions against AI companies like Google, Meta, OpenAI, and Anthropic. While many cases are pending, two early California court decisions favored AI firms, ruling that using copyrighted works for AI training is "fair use" under U.S. copyright law, which has not been updated since before the internet existed.
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However, Anthropic was fined $1.5 billion for pirating the works it trained on, marking the largest payout in U.S. copyright history. About half a million writers were eligible for payments of at least $3,000, but many opted out to pursue further legal action.
Specific relationship between publishers and Google
In Google's case, the relationship is more nuanced. Publishers have a long history of providing copyrighted works to Google for the specific purpose of making books searchable via Google Books, which only shows snippets. The lawsuit alleges Google broke these agreements by using copies for AI training. An internal document cited in the filing reportedly states that using copyrighted books for AI training could be "highly problematic for Google" and might result in $10 billion to $100 billion in potential fines.
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Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This case adds to other similar controversies, including the UN call for a ban on autonomous weapons, which Secretary-General Guterres called morally repugnant. For related reading, see the article: UN Calls for Ban on Autonomous Weapons.
The case raises critical questions about the future of copyright in the AI era. For a legal explanation of fair use, refer to the Wikipedia entry on fair use.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/google-faces-another-ai-training-lawsuit-from-major-publishers
